I had my first swimming lesson for the Ironman 70.3 over the weekend. My friend Mary teaches swimming lessons so she has a lot of practice explaining techniques that come so naturally to her after swimming for so long to rookies like me. I think that is a very important trait that is under appreciated in teachers. Especially since I ask a lot of very novice type questions such as, “do you breathe out your nose or your mouth underwater? Where do you rotate, from your hips or your whole body? Are you sure I can’t use fins during the triathlon? Maybe that way I could keep up!”
As a runner, I’m used to measuring how well I’m doing by going further and faster. If I’m putting in the miles my schedule calls for, I assume I’m good to go. As as swimmer, I wanted to be able to measure my efficiency, and Mary gave me a great way to do that. It’s called The Golf Score. Here’s how you calculate it. Swim one lap in the pool and track these three metrics:
- Exactly how many strokes you take to get down and back
- Exactly how many seconds you take to get down and back
- Your heart rate at the end of the exercise. This can be calculated by taking your pulse for 6 seconds and multiplying that by 10.
Add those three numbers together. This is your golf score. The goal is to decrease the golf score. Preferably each number would decrease as you become more efficient (less strokes), decrease your time (get faster), and lower your heart rate (not work so hard). I’m excited because I can have fun by making a game out of it.
What tricks do you have to make training fun?
Reaching for Ironman 70.3 Boulder 